Quinshel Hebert nervously sat on the edge of a black gurney Tuesday night as a man with a concentrated look in his eyes moved toward her with a needle. Hebert’s muscles tightened, and she closed her eyes. In a matter of seconds, it was all over. The pre-medical sophomore opened her eyes, smiled and stuck out her tongue to show off her new piercing.
“It doesn’t feel like anything,” Hebert said. “It’s just kind of numb.”
This was Hebert’s second time getting her tongue pierced at Atomic Tattoo on Highland Road.
“I had it done before, but I took it out too soon,” she said. “It was hurting.”
Hebert said she wasn’t worried about any complications during the piercing process, but Cathy Springstead, LSU School of Dentistry dental hygiene program associate professor, says people should be concerned.
“The American Dental Association and all healthcare providers strongly discourage oral piercings,” Springstead said. “There are many problems associated with oral piercings.”
In a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, an Italian teenager with a tongue piercing developed a disorder called trigeminal neuralgia which is often associated with Multiple Sclerosis.
Jim Weir, LSU School of Dentistry oral pathologist, said he has never heard of a connection between tongue piercings and trigeminal neuralgia, what he said is a relatively rare disorder.
“[Trigeminal neuralgia] is characterized by sudden onsets of pain in the face,” he said. “Usually, there’s what’s called a trigger zone, and that’s an area if you touch it, it seems to set off these attacks. The trigger zones are usually around the cheek or lips or corner of the mouth.”
Springstead said aside from rare conditions, there are other concerns to take into account when getting a piercing. She said she discourages people from using metal jewelry if they decide to get a tongue piercing. People have the tendency to chew on the metal stud, she said, which can chip or fracture teeth.
“If I knew someone getting a piercing, I would always say to be sure you get something that’s plastic, and go some place that does tongue piercings regularly,” she said.
Chris Allen, the Atomic Tattoo body piercer who pierced Hebert’s tongue, said people get used to having jewelry in their mouths after a few weeks.
Springstead said any type of oral piercings is dangerous because of the sensitivity of the nerves in the tongue.
“It’s difficult to determine where the nerve is,” she said. “People who are doing the piercing need to know what they’re doing. To my knowledge, unless something has come out recently, there is no certification for anyone who does piercings. It’s not a regulated profession, and that’s why there’s so many problems.”
Allen said he completed an apprenticeship before he began piercing. He has more than 35 piercings, including a double zero gauge tongue piercing which is about the size of a pinky-finger.
“I have almost 40 piercings, and the last one I would take out is probably my tongue piercing,” he said. “It’s my most favorite, and I think everyone should experience it at least once.”
Springstead said it is important for people who want to get their tongue pierced to research the subject. She said people should visit the piercing shop beforehand to observe its sterilization techniques and talk to the body piercers.
“Most times, people have absolutely no knowledge of what they’re getting into,” she said.
Springstead said the length of the stud is important factor to consider when getting a tongue piercing.
“The stud that goes through the tongue must be long enough, so that there is no pressure on the tongue because there have been cases of infections and swelling until the person could hardly breathe,” she said.
Valerie Harasta, accounting sophomore, got sick a week and a half after getting a tongue piercing.
“At first, nothing was wrong with it,” she said. “It wasn’t really sore, but then it swelled, and I got these shivers. I was freezing, but my temperature was 103 [degrees], and that’s when a few people in my dorm drove me to the emergency room.”
Harasta said the doctor, who said she didn’t have to take the jewelry out, gave her pain medication. She eventually took the jewelry out and her tongue swelled.
“If oxygen touched it, it was the most excruciating pain,” she said. “I went without eating for five days, and I had to drink water through a straw without touching my tongue.”
Harasta said taking out the jewelry may have allowed her sickness to attack her because the piercing was like an open wound.
Harasta, who has 37 piercings, said she does not plan to get her tongue pierced again.
Chad Lovelady, Tattoo Clinic body piercer with eight years of experience, said if he pierced a nerve, he would immediately take the needle out and stop the bleeding.
“At that point, they have nerve damage, but infections are caused because of what they do for aftercare more than anything,” he said.
Ryan LoCicero, psychology freshman, said he wasn’t worried about getting an infection when he got his tongue piercing last year at Dejavu Tattoo and Piercing on Jefferson Highway.
“I wasn’t necessarily worried about infection,” he said. “I was terrified at the idea that they told me I might flinch and jerk away from the needle.”
Springstead said the aftercare of the piercing is important because infection is a possibility.
“If the tongue isn’t healed in two weeks, and there’s still bleeding and oozing, get rid of the piercing or go back to where you went or see a physician to see if there’s an infection present,” she said.
Springstead said people with tongue piercings who engage in oral sex are at a much higher risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases. She said people should clean the jewelry every day with hydrogen peroxide.
LoCicero said he uses mouthwash and brushes his teeth and tongue every day. He said he takes the jewelry out of his mouth one to two times every week to throughly clean it.
Lovelady, who got his piercings to pay homage to his Irish heritage, said the culture of piercings has changed over time.
“Nowadays, I think people do it more for fashion because they see it as a popularity thing,” he said. “I got mine for background and cultural reasons.”
—–Contact Angelle Barbazon at [email protected]